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Sunday, February 15, 2015

I spent this Valentine's weekend at a family retreat with my church in Harvey Cedars, New Jersey. It's been a COLD weekend to spend at the beach, I'll tell you that. Despite temperatures well below freezing and a wind that led me to dream of tornadoes last night, some of our youth were crazy enough to take a Polar Bear Plunge.

With the bayside waters frozen to ice, I'm not even sure how they made it into the water!

Look at those icicles under the pier!

The weekend color palette outside was basically limited to shades of grey and brown, but inside our retreat center, we enjoyed colorful days of food, fellowship, worship and song, teaching and learning, Bananagrams and CatchPhrase, intergenerational playtime and conversation...our annual retreat never disappoints!

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Now that I am home, I've taken a moment to put all of the names from the commenters on my previous post on slips of paper in order to draw a winner for the first and second prizes. The winner of Prize Pack #1 is Heather, which is lovely since she mentioned that her daughter would be able to make use of the un-opened packs of sticker letters. And the winner of Prize Pack #2 is no stranger to winning giveaways on this blog; I'm pretty sure I've drawn Tina's name for at least one giveaway in the past! So the selection of opened adhesive letters will be heading her way shortly.

Thank you to those of you who entered the giveaway. I hope to have some more Craft Closet Clean-Outs and other goodies in the future!

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

But I have never been able to get alphabet stickers to STAY where I put them. I have used them on scrapbook pages and planner pages, and without fail, the letters make their way onto other pages, or the arm of the sofa, or the bottom of my sock.

That does not mean, however, that OTHER people don't find them perfectly useful. So, I have decided to clean out my stash of alphabet stickers, and give them a better home with someone who can truly make use of them without the frustration that I invariably experience.

If you would like to be the person to give my alphabet stickers a new home, please leave a comment on this post. No hoops to jump through; just make sure I have your email address so I can find out your postal address for shipping. If you'd like to include a comment about how you like to use your alphabet stickers, I would be interested to hear.

An assortment of letters from 15 different packages that have been used to varying degrees.

Two packages only have one or two stickers missing; others, as you can see, have a number of stickers missing, but many more still available for use.

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Please comment by February 14 if you would like to have one of these prize packs, and I'll let everyone know who I will be sending them to on February 15. My plan is to draw names from a hat, so to speak, and send the first prize pack to the first name I draw, and the second prize pack to the second name I draw.

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Start with a regular piece of color. Any color will do, but red and pink would be traditional choices for Valentine's Day.

Fold it in half:

Trace around your hand with a pencil. For this trick to work, however, you have to make sure that your thumb and pointer finger are off the page just a little bit:

Cut around the pencil outline you have created:

Are you ready to see the result?

Unfold, and voila:

Hands and heart for a

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

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Here's a little tip for making sure you get the best result. Look at the picture below to identify the cut that is going to create the heart in your final piece. Instead of faithfully cutting out the pencil outline, you might want to modify your cut just a bit to make a true heart shape:

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You can use your paper-crafted "hands and heart" as a Valentine card for a loved one this week. Add a special message, fun doodles, or whatever you would like to personalize your paper crafted gift!

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I found this project via Pinterest, which took me this site, written in Russian, but with fabulously self-explanatory photos for creating this project!

Welcome!

As a writer and mixed-media artist (that’s right, I said it!), I love to explore creativity and make art in the broadest sense of the term. As a mother, I consider my two daughters my greatest creative act, but beyond that I write and dabble in collage, mixed-media and assemblage projects, art journaling, card making, and altered art. “Drawing Near” is the blog that chronicles my creative pursuits, while “Living Stones” is the blog that explores topics of faith, prayer, Bible study, and Christian fellowship and service. My day-to-day life as a stay-at-home mother continues to revolve around meals, laundry, crafts, trips to school, a living room full of toys, family phone calls, church activities, reading, journaling, and exploring my creative side. It is not hard to fill the days with two spirited daughters, a “perfect-for-me” husband, and a determination to keep life interesting!

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My other blog, Living Stones, will be updated two to three times a month with posts related to the Living Stones Women's Ministry, which began meeting in my home in February 2014. Blog entries will focus on Bible study, prayer, mission/service, fellowship, and ideas related to our discussions during our meetings. All are welcome to visit, read, and join the conversation!

Today's Thought

Yes, one person can do many great things. But you don’t have to do all of them today.--Stacy, from A Delightful Home blog